Julie Morgan

 

  Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Cardiff North

 

PARLIAMENTARY EXPENSES

 

I would like to let visitors to my website know as many details as possible about my expense claims.

* Please see below for the latest update in light of February 4th’s report by Sir Thomas Legg.

 

I know that many of you will have learned about MPs’ expenses from reports in the Daily Telegraph and you may be interested to know that I was featured in an article in the Telegraph concerning expenses headed “The Saints: Members Who Try to Cut Their Costs” (May 23rd 2009) – the website version can be found here.

The text of the article is as follows:

“As Members of Parliament go back to their constituencies for the Whitsun break, some will be able to do so knowing they have tried to keep the cost of their second home claims to a minimum.

They include Julie Morgan, the Labour MP for Cardiff North, who claims less than £10,000 a year for her London flat, making her one of the 100 cheapest MPs in terms of second home claims.

Mrs Morgan, who is married to Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister of Wales, submits claims for modest rent on her small flat in south London *, together with utility bills, council tax and small telephone bills.

 

In the 2007-08 financial year she claimed £9,754 for her second home, 150 miles from her constituency, while some MPs with constituencies inside the M25 charged the maximum £23,083.”

 

* Correction: I pay a mortgage on the flat.

 

For details of my London expenses, click here.

For details of how I pay for my office, click here.

For details of the new expenses system, click here.

You can find all the details of my expenses on the Parliament website – click here.

 

 

FEBRUARY UPDATE

 

Statement –  February 4th 2010:

 

““I repaid £838.13 for inadvertent overclaiming of mortgage interest rates for the years 06-07 and 07-08. For the years 04-05. 05-06 and 08-09, I underclaimed mortgage interest payments by £1,903.36. Therefore, over the 5 years Legg looked at, I actually underclaimed mortgage interest payments by £1,065.23.

 

I drew this to Sir Thomas Legg’s attention, but he said that calculations were made on an annual basis. I decided not to appeal to the judge because I wanted to get the issue out of the way so that I could concentrate on my work in Parliament and in Cardiff North.

 

My claims are amongst the lowest in the House of Commons and I was called a “Saint” by the Daily Telegraph! The letter I sent to the Fees Office and the table I sent to Sir Thomas Legg can be found below.

 

“All this information has been on my website since December 2009. All details of my expenses can be found at www.juliemorgan.org.”

 

 

Please see below a letter I wrote on December 15th 2009 to the Fees Office:

 

Andrew Walker

Director General of Resources

Department of Resources

Fees Office

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

 

 

Dear Mr Walker,

 

Over the five years that Sir Thomas Legg covered in his examination, I underclaimed £1,903.36 on mortgage interest payments and I inadvertently overclaimed £838.13. I underclaimed for three years and overclaimed for two years. The total I underclaimed therefore is £1,065.23 (table attached).  I have drawn this to Sir Thomas’s notice, but his conclusion is that calculations are made on an annual basis.

 

I am therefore paying back the £838.13 for the two years I inadvertently overclaimed: 2006-07 and 2007-08.    

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

JULIE MORGAN

MP FOR CARDIFF NORTH

 

Please see below the table sent to Sir Thomas Legg:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL UNDERCLAIMED: £1,065.23

(UNDERCLAIM MINUS OVERCLAIM)

 

 

_________________________________________

MORE DETAILS OF MY CLAIMS

 

I hope that these details will show that I am not trying to maximise my income and that I am trying to provide a good service to all my constituents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I trust this information will show that I am not trying to maximise my income and trying to give a good service to all my constituents who need help, you may wish to put questions to me about the information or about reform of the House of Commons expenses system.

Please feel free to e-mail me any questions you might have or give me a call. My details can be found on the 'Contact Me' page. I would be very happy to speak to you.

 

NEW SYSTEM

It has been announced that a new system will be put in place to sort out problems with the current arrangements for allowances.

An independent body is currently scrutinising all MPs’ claims over the last four years and will identify those claims which should not have been made and should not have paid out because they were outside the rules. Arrangements will then be made for repayment. This review is expected to be published in November.

 

If, after this independent audit led by Sir Thomas Legg, it turns out that I have made an inadvertent mistake, I will of course correct this.

What is more, under new measures announced by Michael Martin in May with cross-party support, there will be:

* An immediate ban on claims for furniture.
* A cap on monthly interest payments for accommodation.
* A restriction on any changes to designation of main and second homes.

* A ban on MPs who are married, or living together as partners, claiming more than one second home allowance.

I entirely support these measures and hope they will go some way towards restoring public trust.

TOP

Paying for My Office

 

Every year, I pay extra from my own salary to keep my office going – over the last few years, I have paid out over £31,000 of my own money. We are inundated with constituents asking for help and I have not found it possible to manage on the allowance given to cover staff salaries, expenses and the cost of running the Cardiff office. I received no salary in my pay-slip for the last months of the year 2007/08, due to the cost of the constituency office being greater than the allowance. I am happy to do this in order to provide as effective a service as possible to my constituents in Cardiff North.

 

Please see the table below – I should emphasise that I am only making this information public in the context of criticism of MPs' expenses:

Official Figures: Parliamentary Session – Total Paid Out From Salary:

2004/05 £3,632

2005/06 £1,600.20
2006/07 £9,376
2007/08 £16,689

Additional Costs Allowance

 

The Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) covers the additional costs involved because of living away from home to work in Parliament. If you can't get back home every night, you have an allowance to cover the extra costs involved. The allowance is for up to £24,000 a year, subject to receipts claimed above £250 during the four years in question.

In the four years under scrutiny I claimed the following amounts from the ACA in respect of my London flat:
 

Official Figures: Parliamentary Session – Total Claimed (from a maximum of £24,000 p.a.):

2004/05: £9,537

2005/06: £10,027
2006/07: £8,502
2007/08: £9,754

Amongst MPs, I have generally been in the bottom 15% of those claiming. Of the 645 MPs in the House of Commons, around 620 are entitled to claim ACA because they are not inner London MPs. Of these MPs, the last year available placed me as the 65th lowest claim; the year prior to that I had the 49th lowest claim.

In 2007, I was late paying my London Council Tax bill and incurred additional costs of £90. This was around the time my mother died. When I inspected the bill, I paid back the £90 to the House of Commons as it had been included in the Council Tax bill which I had claimed.